Curriculum Unit Introduction Title of unit: America and World War II Vital theme of the unit: America’s involvement in World War II Author and contact information: Lance McConkey lancemcconkey@comcast.net Grade level: 11th Number of lessons in the unit: 2 Time needed to complete unit: 2-3 class periods Curriculum standards addressed Identify the causes of WWII. State Curriculum Era 8 standard 5.2 and Performance indicator level 1I Identify the events that led up to the US entering WWII. Era 8 Level 2 Iidentify axis & allied alliances on a map. Era 8 Level 2 Technology used: CD Player, Possible multi media projector and Powerpoint. Unit introduction and overview of instructional plan: * Give details of the critical content that must be mastered and the desired student outcomes * Describe how the activities will promote a deep understanding of the vital theme of the unit * Describe how the unit will draw on students’ prior knowledge on the theme, provide

opportunities for students to construct knowledge, connect it to their prior knowledge and experience, and show what they understand.

* Describe techniques for integrating American history across other disciplines * Include the guiding questions that will help students develop historical thinking * Include a timeline for the unit

The financial progress American saw in the early and middle part of the 1920s

collapsed with the stock market crash of 1929. However, Germany, who was forced to

swallow the bitter pill of defeat in the form of the Versailles Treaty, faced depression

during the same time Americans were enjoying Jazz music and Flappers in hidden

speakeasies. The world wide depression led the German citizens to look for any hopeful

solution to their problems. This glimmering hope came in the form of Adolph Hitler, a

corporal in the German army during World War I.

The Weimar Republic was the name of the government forced on the German

people after their defeat in World War I. Inflation was running rampant in Germany

during the time of the Weimar Republic and Hitler would use this to his advantage to

gain support as a leader who wanted change in Germany. The high inflation and high

unemployment rates in Germany and other European countries helped fascist leaders

such as Hitler and Benito Mussolini take control of their countries by giving the people

hope of a brighter future. Fascism promoted nationalism and put the interests of the state

before that of individuals. Hitler slowly rose through the ranks and eventually became

the leader of the NAZI Party (National Socialist German Workers’ Party).

Hitler’s promise of bringing Germany out of the social and economic depression

inspired citizens to join the movement. Hitler was a very good orator and through his

fiery speeches he touched the German people and in January of 1933 he became the

Chancellor of Germany. Once in office Hitler started fulfilling the destiny he laid out in

Mein Kampf his autobiography written while in jail. Hitler had created a master plan for

the NAZI Party, he wanted to unite all German speaking people in a great German

Empire, promote racial purification, and he wanted lebensraum (living space) for all the

German people. Hitler blamed Jews and communists/socialists for Germanys defeat

during the First World War and these were the first people targeted by Hitler once in

power.

Hitler issues orders for the re-occupation of the Rhineland in March of 1936. The

troops are given orders that if the French take action to withdraw. The master plan is

now in process. Herman Goring is put in charge of having the economy and military

ready for war in four years. The next three years are filled with Hitler’s aggressive

rebuilding of the German war machine and the expansion of German living space by the

occupation of Austria and Sudeten Land. The war in Europe started in a lightening

manor with the German attack on the Poland in 1939. The British and French

governments had been following a policy of appeasement by giving into several of

Hitler’s demands. The whole of Europe is now thrust into another great war.

During this same time the small island country of Japan was building an empire in

Asia. The 1930’s had seen Japan like the rest of the world find economic hardships

around every corner. This gave room for the military to take key positions in the

Japanese government including the prime ministers spot and start an aggressive move

toward building an empire in the Pacific. Manchuria was added to the already building

Japanese empire of Korea and Taiwan in 1931. The rest of China fell victim to the

Japanese army in 1937.

America remained neutral throughout the beginnings of World War II. Congress

passed the first of three neutrality acts in 1935 assuring America’s isolationist stance

toward the hostilities in Europe and Asia. America did under Franklin Roosevelt’s

leadership start preparing for war as Hitler launched his Blitzkrieg attack on Poland.

France completely fell to Germany in June of 1940 and America realized that it must

improve the status of the armed forces. America started cutting the valuable supplies of

steel and aluminum that was being sent to Japan as they became more aggressive with

occupations of Asian countries. When Japan occupied French Indochina in July of 1941

Roosevelt ended shipments of gas and oil to Japan as well as freezing Japanese assets in

the United States. This final action was the spark that would be ignited in Pearl Harbor

on December 7, 1941 with the Japanese surprise attack on the anchored American fleet.

The president asked for and received a declaration of war against the Empire of Japan in

a joint session of congress on December 8th 1941.

Richard Thomas Alexander was a young American who was in Germany several times

throughout his life. First as a young man with his family and then later as a soldier

during World War II. This first excerpt is a look at Germany under the Weimar Republic

and an example of the high inflation rates during the time when Alexander was there in

1925:

ALEXANDER: Oh, well, the reason I went to Germany was that my dad was a German specialist, and he was in the process of writing on the new Republic, the Weimar Republic, see, which didn't start until 1919-1920. It was just after the horrendous inflation of'23-'24. We were there in '25, and we were there for a year. My dad had groups of-he took some graduate students over, and then we stayed all winter, and he had to come back to teach classes, then he came back again in the spring through next summer. So we were there a full year, and I remember it very well. We lived there out in Grunerwald, in a boarding house, pension, you know. Nice section of town. It's out ... west. Interesting enough, I was back there in '94, and the building, the house-it was a very fine home, three storied manor house, that was obviously lost by its owner during the inflation. It was taken over by a family, a man and his wife, and they made a living by just taking in boarders. We had our meals there, and we lived there most of the year, not all of the time. We traveled a good deal.... I remember, across the street was another lovely home, was behind a big wrought iron fence, and they had a kennel of German Shepherds, beautiful dogs.... I did everything 1 could to get my dad and mother to get me one for Christmas. They were very inexpensive, you know, and I wrote him and told him how much they were. They were about twenty bucks, or something like that. They never did, because we were living in an apartment in New York where they were bad pets. But boy, I really loved those dogs. When I started living down here where I could have them, I've had German Shepherds ever since. Don't have any right now.... And then I learned something about the inflation. It was over, but up in the attic of this big house where we lived in the pension, there was-it was just an attic, a storage place. We were kind of small, and when my mother would go out socially in the evenings, we always had a young gal, a Kindermaedchen, who would come in and baby-sit for us. And she was a German girl who was a refugee from the Soviet revolution. Her father had been in business in Saint Petersburg or Moscow. The family had lost everything with the Russian Revolution. They came in, came back to Berlin, and this gal was, oh, she was probably sixteen or seventeen, and was interested in baby sitting. She took care of us quite often. One of the things I enjoyed-my sister, too-was on rainy days when we couldn't go outside and play or walk someplace ... off property, we would go up to this attic. It was kind of a playroom. I remember this ... round top trunk that was just chockfull of inflation money. Billions of billions of marks. Most of it was paper money, but had all kinds of white metalthey weren't precious metals. They were just these things they didn't use after a while. I think it was 4,200,000,000 marks to the dollar. I believe that was right. It was supposed to be four marks and 20 pfennigs to the dollar. They just kept moving the decimal point over until they got into-I think it was billions. Because the Germans have a different notation for that. See, we go from a thousand to a million. We don't have anything about 100,000. The Indians have 100,000. They call it a lakh. And then a million is six digits. The Germans have a milliard and a

billion, and I don't know-I can't remember which is which. [Million is the same in German; Milliard means a billion.] PIEHLER: But it was an astronomical sum. ALEXANDER: It was into the millions and millions of marks to the dollar. Everything was paper, because the little pfennigs didn't mean anything. You can look at the stamps if you're a stamp collector.... They would surcharge then about every three weeks. They would have to raise the price. So, when they stabilized the mark in early '24, all this other stuff became completely redundant. PIEHLER: It was play money. ALEXANDER: Oh, it was just like a pirate-I thought about a pirate's chest. You could just pull the stuff out and throw the stuff around and just play with it. I remember it vividly.i

Alexander, Richard T. interviewed by Dr. Kurt Piehler, & Jake White, April 4, 2003, transcript, Veterans Oral History Project, Center for the Study of War and Society Department of History, Knoxville, TN.

During an oral interview Richard Alexander discussed living in Germany during the early part of the

1930s and attending school there. This portion of the interview Mr. Alexander talks about going to

school in Germany just before Hitler gains total control and also just after Hitler is appointed

Chancellor of Germany. The beginnings of the German rearmament is discussed by Mr. Alexander:

ALEXANDER: That year. But I did in '30-'3 1, when I was about [an] 8`'' grader. It was interesting. PIEHLER: Since you brought up '30-'31, could you talk a little bit about '30-'31? ALEXANDER In '30, 1 went to a school that was directed by a very close friend of my dad's, Fritz Karsen, who was-it was the largest school in Berlin. It was a new attempt, to some extent-Dewey, of course, was influencing even the Germans. He was trying to make it more comprehensive. It was co-educational, which was unusual. He had from the kindergarten all the way through the Gymnasium in one-well what it was, there were several buildings, but it was all one administrative unit. It was Kaiser Friedrich Wilhelm Gymnasium, but the primary school was the Karl Marx Schule. It was named after Karl Marx, because it was out there in the southeast district of Neukolln, which was the-it was [the] blue collar and lower district of Berlin. It was a laboring area. They were-had a good deal more freedom than a typical German school. The boys and girls were in school together in high school. And I was there six months. Very good, very nice experience. A lot of friends that I got to meet. I lost most of them during the war. I only know of one girl that's in this country.... Her father fled. It was the daughter of Dr. Karsen. They fled. PIEHLER: They fled in '33? ALEXANDER: Yeah. About a week after Hitler ... took office, they took off PIEHLER: Why? 1 mean... ALEXANDER: Well, there were two reasons. The first one, though, the first one was that he was the director of this school and was a very, very radical socialist, and he had been politically involved, and then he was Jewish. PIEHLER: Those are two very good reasons. ALEXANDER: Yeah. Two. Actually, the reason he left was that-he could have stayed, I think, at that time, just being a Jew. But he was director of a very important school that was very much the antithesis of what the Nazis stood for. So he lost his position, I mean, right away. So he packed up his stuff and fled to Paris, and went to Bogota, and finally my dad got him a job at Brooklyn College in New York. PIEHLER: I'm curious: the second time you were in Germany, how aware were you of the rise of the Nazi party? ALEXANDER: The second time I was ... PIEHLER: When you were there actually going to school. ALEXANDER: Now, the first time, in'30-'31, it was pre-Nazi.

PIEHLER: Yeah, but ... there were Nazis around. ALEXANDER: Oh, yeah, yeah. Course, a lot of people don't realize Berlin was not the strong Nazi stronghold.... It was red. Hamburg and Berlin were both very red. Of course, Goebbels and Goering were there, and they tried their darnedest. They had some success, but to the very end, and even after the Nazis took over, Berlin was very, very red. WHITE: By "red" you mean communist? ALEXANDER: Yes, and socialist, and Nazi. PIEHLER: I mean, I could tell with Karl Marx-this was a real strength. Communist and also social democrat. ALEXANDER: Of course, see that was my second trip, year in Germany. Then when I came back in '33, I wasn't there quite a full year that time. I was just there from summer until January. I didn't go to the Gymnasium. I went to the university and just took language courses there at the Institut fur Auslander, there in Berlin. It was obvious what ... changes had taken place. PIEHLER: What were some of the obvious ... ALEXANDER: Oh, you can't believe the flags and the banners. PIEHLER: So Nazi flags all over? ALEXANDER: Oh, everywhere. It was just unbelievable. Back in '30-'3 1, they had two very serious economic crises. They were worried about the political situation that was unsettled. The Reichstag was having a terrible time getting any kind of quorum, you know. They couldn't get a cabinet that would last a week, and Hindenburg eventually had to rule by decree. That led eventually, in '32-'33, to Hitler's ascension to Chancellorship. But the, out there in Neukolln, which is out southeast, there were demonstrations in front of the Rathaus. Berlin was an amalgamation of a lot of little outer lying communities. There were about twenty or thirty of them that were absorbed over the years. After World War I, and then again between the warsand Neukolln had it's own Rathaus, its own courthouse. That district was ruled under the aegis of greater Berlin, but they still had some-I guess you would call it Neukolln business that was decided in the Rathaus. PIEHLER: Or a sort of local boroughs like, London. A series of local boroughs. ALEXANDER: Yeah, yeah, the same sort of thing. Well, New York has the same thing, but it's not quite the same. Because a lot of those boroughs were absorbed quite a while ago. But anyway, the school was about three streets from the Rathaus. They would meet there about once a week. There would be some kind of a demonstration. It would be the communists one week. The next week it would be the Nazis out. And they were always fighting. They always had-the traffic would be jammed, and they would have police out and around trying to keep order. We lived-at that time, we lived about as far as from here to-well, about 150 yards from the Reichstag and the Brandenburg Gate is where we lived, in another boarding house. We took a streetcar every morning out to the school, which was out in-it was about a twenty-five minute streetcar ride out southeast. Whenever they had a Reichstag meeting, they

would throw a cordon around the Reichstag, oh, about at least a mile radius. The busses and streetcars just wouldn't stop. The streetcars had to go through because of tracks, but they just wouldn't stop. Our stop was right at the corner of the Reichstag. So we either had to get off way back at Potsdamerplatz and walk around, or we would have to go on the other side of the river and walk back a long ways. My sister and I finally figured out that in most cases the street car ... driver had to stop and throw a switch right there at the corner of the Reichstag, and when he threw this switch, he had to stop, and we would hop off and we'd make for our apartment where we stayed. The police would see us at the other end of the street and they would come running after us, wondering what we were doing getting off in that forbidden zone. That would happen any day they had any kind of a meeting at the ... PIEHLER: So you were very conscious when the Reichstag was meeting, because they wouldn't stop in front of it? ALEXANDER: Pardon? PIEHLER: You were very conscious of the meetings of the Reichstag because of this. ALEXANDER: Oh, yeah, yeah, because it would be about two miles. If you know anything about Berlin at all, Potsdamerplatz is there at Leipzigerstrasse, and that was the last place you could get off and on. Then you went by Brandenburg Gate. They just went around the Reichstag and then at Dorotheenstrasse, that's where the switch was, and occasionally they didn't stop if the-Mary and I learned that if the streetcar before us had gone down Dorotheenstrasse, they wouldn't stop.... Ours had to go around by Lehrte Bahnhof; and it had to stop and throw the stop. About one time out of five or six we would end up having to ride the full distance. But it was interesting to see the-now, on days when it didn't meet, or early in the morning, we went to school about-it was dark when we went to school. It was about 6:30, quarter to seven. We started, I think, 7:30. The police wouldn't be there yet, but coming back in the afternoon around 2:30 or 3:00, the meetings were still going on, and sometimes even in the evenings they would meet. So we would hop off there at the corner. That was in '30-'31. Then when I was there in '33 and '34, we still lived at Dorotheenstrasse, same place, right by the Reichstag, but I was going to the Gymnasium down the street. And I just walked. We didn't take a streetcar, so I didn't have that problem. PIEHLER: Also, the Nazis were in power. ALEXANDER: Yes.

PIEHLER: What else did you notice? You mentioned the banners, what else did you notice that changed in Germany?

ALEXANDER: Oh, uniforms and the rearmament. There were all kinds of-they had all kinds of military ceremonies there at Unter den Linden. That's where the tomb of the Unknown Soldier was, down Unter den Linden. The Zeughaus, which was ... a museum of armaments, and whenever someone from World War I died, they'd have a state funeral, and they'd all go through the Brandenburg Gate and down there to the cathedral, and they'd have a big military parade, and I-they were always obvious there.

PIEHLER: And this differed from your previous times? ALEXANDER: Oh yes, oh yes. PIEHLER: These ... lavish state funerals.

ALEXANDER: Yeah. You could see the buildup, the military buildup. Very obvious. Then, of course, in '35-'36 when I was there, it was even more so. And another thing, there were no riots. The communists were pretty well taken care of The Nazi-that's all there were. The SA were still in great numbers. We lived just a short distance from the chancellery. Let's see. Wilhelmstrasse is perpendicular to Unter den Linden, and it's just one street east of the Brandenburg Gate. That's where-Wilhelmstrasse is just like Pennsylvania Avenue. It's the center of all the main government functions. We would see-I remember, this was in '34, yeah. This was in '33-'34, and I was going to the Gymnasium. The Germans had all kinds of relief programs. Every month there was some kind of a national program ... PIEHLER: To relieve someone.

ALEXANDER: Yeah, the Winterhilfe. The Winter Aid. It would start about August. (Laughter) They were out. Then they had another one. It was called Eintopfgericht, which was-every meal in every restaurant in Germany was to be of one pot. Ein Topf. One pot. It was-that's all you could get. It was a stew. You would pay the usually three or four marks for a full meal, and it would probably cost a mark and a half, and then the difference between the Eintopf and the menu price was collected at the restaurant, and they came around to the families, too. They came around to our boarding house where we were, and Frau [Sophia] Betz had to ante up the difference between what the one pot meal cost, and our-it wasn't much. They would give you a little button, a little thing to show that you had ... PIEHLER: Did you wear the button, or did you get a button? ALEXANDER: Oh yeah, yeah.... I remember, another thing [I] very vividly remember. I don't know whether we ... have ever done it, but in Germany and Europe, the cigarette companies had cards, a little like baseball cards-a little smaller-of celebrities and all kinds of things. Little old pack of twelve cigarettes, you'd get a little card. They would give you albums that you could stick these things in, and this one boy in our class, apparently his father must have smoked a lot, or somebody did in the family, and he had a huge album of these things, just hundreds of then. These at that time were all Nazi celebrities, and when I was there you wanna change?i

Alexander, Richard T. interviewed by Dr. Kurt Piehler, & Jake White, April 4, 2003, transcript, Veterans Oral History Project, Center for the Study of War and Society Department of History, Knoxville, TN.

Germany saw radical changes from the first time Mr. Alexander was there as a youngster in

1925 and the second and third time he was there in 1930-1931 and 1933. The Nazi Party was gaining

control of seats in the Reichstag (Germany’s Congress) and Hitler was pulling the strings of the Nazi

party. The master plan set forth in his book was starting to take place. Germany was defying the

Treaty of Versailles and seeking rearmament. Hitler at this point was even turning on people in his

own party that he saw as a threat to his master plan. Ernst Rohm was the leader of the S.A

(Sturmabteilungen) a paramilitary organization that was the strong arm of the Nazi party for several

years. The S.A. had grown to have over 3 million members and Rohm did not believe in Hitler’s master

plan. June 30, 1934 (the night of the long knives) Hitler had his secret police (Gestapo) and the S.S.

(Schutzstaffel, security units) arrest members of the S.A. at least 80 of them were executed including

Rohm.

ALEXANDER: Well, this boy had a gorgeous collection, just dozens and dozens of these things, [with] a little ... biographical statement about it. But these were all very prominent members of the Nazis, the SS, the SA, and all of their leadership and everything, in this album. He brought it to school one day. He didn't bring it to show it to me, but he brought it, showed it [to] the rest of the fellows in the class. So he was going through it, and this was after the Putsch of 193[4]. PIEHLER: Against the SA? ALEXANDER: [Ernst] Rohm. Of course, [Rohm] was a very close friend of Hitler. He was Hitler's army captain during World War I, and was head of the SA. But in the first year of their rule, the SA was many times bigger than the SS, and the SA was very radical. It was quite a socialist group. They had a lot of fellows who probably would have been communist if the Nazi's hadn't given them more money, a better deal. So they-Hitler finally purged the SA. They shot Rohm, and they shot what's his name, the fellow who had been the vice chancellor. Two or three other big army people got just murdered. There were hundreds of them murdered. Well, in this album, there was a problem, because all these people were in that album, and the company apparently had printed a sticker, a little label-I forget exactly what it said, but it says "Traitor to the fatherland." And they would-I guess they sent them out, or I don't know how the boy got it, but this was not a hand written thing. This was a label that was glued over the man's image, and there must have been fifteen or twenty of these people who were now persona non grata. PIEHLER: But the cards had been printed, and ... ALEXANDER: Oh, they had been in the album, and I guess Rohm probably was in the first month. But they circulated these things, and kids swapped them just like we swap baseball cards. So I asked him about it, and they didn't have much explanation, you know.i

Alexander, Richard T. interviewed by Dr. Kurt Piehler, & Jake White, April 4, 2003, transcript, Veterans Oral History Project, Center for the Study of War and Society Department of History, Knoxville, TN.

America in her preparation for war issued the first peace time draft through

congressional order in the summer of 1940. This was done so the army could be

expanded to 2 million men and it required 16.5 million men to register. The

following two documents are letters sent to Clure Adams. The first letter was his

notice of selection stating that he had been drafted under this new legislation. The

second letter was sent to Clure Adams in October of 1945 congratulating him on his

successful completion of his time in service during World War II.

NOTICE OF SELECTION

To Clure Adams, Order No. 343 You have been selected for training and service under the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940. You will receive an Order to Report for Induction—such induction to take place on or about ___May 26, 1941___, 19___ when adequate facilities are expected to be available. This notice is given to you in advance for your convenience, and is not an order to report. Persons reporting to the induction station in some instances may be rejected for physical or other reasons. It is well to keep this in mind in arranging your affairs, to prevent any undue hardships if you are rejected at the induction station. If you are employed, you should advise your employer of this notice and of the possibility that you may not be accepted at the induction station. Your employer can then be prepared to replace you if you are accepted, or to continue your employment if you are rejected. The Order to Report for Induction will specify a definite time and place for you to report.

This document was a draft notice received by Clure Adams in May of 1941. Retrieved from UT Special Collections World War II Collections MS-1259 Box 1, Folder 1, Clure Adams.

1 October 1945

SUBJECT: Best Wishes. TO: Returning Seventh Air Force Veterans. I take this opportunity to wish all of you now about to return to the United States and civilian life my most sincere wishes for happiness and success in the years to come. You have performed outstanding duties for your country in the greatest crisis in its history. Your job of fighting is finished. You are free to go home to pursue a normal life. It has been an honor for me to have been associated with you. The few months we have served together will be cherished by me always.

THOMAS D. WHITE Brigadier General, U.S.A.,

Commanding.

This letter was received by Clure Adams upon completing his active duty service on/or about October 1 1945. Retrieved from UT Special Collections World War II Collections MS-1259 Box 1, Folder 1, Clure Adams.

The next document is a letter sent to Mr. Lewis B. Fox in 1944. Mr. Fox had been in the

hospital with Mrs. Browns son and she is wandering if Mr. Fox has any further

information about the whereabouts of her son.

Dec 18, 1944 Dear Mr. Fox.

Received your most welcome letter. Hope by the time you receive this letter you are feeling fine. Sure was glad to hear you and my son Pfc. O.J. Brown Jr. were together in the hospital but am sorry to hear of your bad luck and hope you the very best of luck in years to come. We haven’t heard from my son since the 20 of Oct we got a telegram he went back to the front the 26 of Oct. Sure wish we could hear from him if you hear from his company or from him please write me and let me hear from him. If you hear anything. Do you think he is back with the Eight Army in Italy will close hoping and praying for your speedy recovery. Again we are thanking you for your kind letter and if you are ever in Knoxville Tenn. would like very much if you would stop and see us.

God Bless You.

Mrs. O.J. Brown 4007 Chapman Highway Knoxville 15, Tenn.

Letter Written to Mr. Lewis B. Fox while he was in the hospital in Naples. Retrieved from UT Special Collections World War II Collections MS-1259 Box 1, Folder 12, Lewis B. Fox.

America needed to capture the small island of Iwo Jima because the Japanese airstrip

located on the island was a launching point for fighter planes to defend the main island of

Japan from American bombers. The Japanese were dug in and prepared to defend the

island at all costs. The following document is a marines accounts of events that happened

to him during his time on Iwo Jima. Following the document is a picture of the marine

receiving a bronze star for the actions he describes in his story.

Sgt. Kenneth V. Stockburger I

I landed on Iwo Jima on D+3 as myself and crew were a spare crew and did not have a tank. Although the ship I was aboard which was an A.P.D. 208 went in D-Day. It layed off shore about one thousand yards and was used as a hospital ship.

During the three days before I went in out duties were to help unload the wounded

from the LV7s aboard the APD I was on. Some came in leg less, armless and very badly shot up. Others seemed to be

hopeless cases, and many turned out that way. Due to some of these sights I was very anxious to go ashore. The first day when

we landed it was about 1600 the southern end of the island was pretty much secure. Just about the time we got our foxholes dug to secure for the night, there were some Jap planes trying to get through to bomb our troops but all our shops and anti-aircraft guns batteries cut loose at them, and none got through. Then as the anti-aircraft guns quieted down, the mortars from the Japs started to fall in our area. But we were pretty well dug in and there were no casualties close by me.

The next morning I was put in a tank as the tank commander of this tank had been

killed the day before. From that day on I was on the front lines every day for twenty-eight days. This tank I was in was a flame thrower tank, and my crew and myself really got our share of those nips. We had several close calls with large mortars and guns but were very fortunate not to receive a direct hit.

Finally about D+22 we were going off ahead of the infantry to burn out a cave

which was about two hundred yards ahead of them that they were getting lots of resistance from.

The road we followed to the mouth of this cave was very narrow and off to the

right of it as we got up to the proper distance so that we could reach this cave with our flame thrower, we had to traverse the turret to the let in order to hit the target. Just as we got all ready to fire, and even had the secondary fuel ablaze, a mine went off, and much to our sorrow we were sitting on it as it happened to be an electric controlled one. We were not hurt, although this mine blew five blocks out of the track on the tank. Then of course we were unable to move either way. But after we got ourselves squared around in the tank we went about our business and burned out the cave and killed several Nips. But of course that wasn’t all that were left on the island. After we were out of fuel and couldn’t move of course. These other Nips would try to get at us with suit cases. But with the help of another tank behind us and we still had two machine guns, we were able to kill all that attempted to get at us, although we did have to stay in that spot for four and a half hours until the infantry could catch up with us to give us protection while we tied the tank to the other one which pulled us to safety.

Another instance was D+15 when we were called with our Flame tank up to burn out a large pocket. There had been a narrow road bulldozed up in this vicinity. When we arrived there were many many Nips there as we started to spray the flame they started to run in all directions. We really had a picnic shooting and watching them all running. Some looked like superman running all ablaze. We thought we had them all, but after we pulled out with our tank, there were hundreds more moved right in. So when we went back and refueled we went back to the same spot. This time we went in about fifty yards farther. The same thing took place as when we were there before the first time.

After we fired our load this time and had to back out as the terrain was too rough

to turn around in, we threw one of our tracks, as it didn’t come clear off it could be worked back on with a little assistance in directing the driver. So my gunner got out and was directing my driver which was to turn the tank while I was out beside the tank guarding him with my pistol. As my gunner was laying in front of the tank directing the driver I beside the tank, an infantryman stepped around the back of it, and there was a Nip who was only about ten feet from me,, and there is where the Nip died. It sure was a great surprise to me, as he was laying in a hole and I hadn’t been able to see him before.

“Note Sgt. Stockburger was awarded the Bronze Star for these actions. Now thank goodness the war is over and maybe we will all soon get home.

Retrieved from UT Special Collections World War II Collections MS-1259 Box 1, Folder 11 Milo S. Fisher.

The following picture is a picture taken of the American flag being raised on Mount

Suribachi on the island of Iwo Jima.

www.archives.gov/.../ images/ww2_156.jpg

The following picture is American equipment and personal after the battle for the island

of Tarawa.

Retrieved from UT Special Collections World War II Collections MS-1259 Box 1, Folder 21, Robert t. Gregory.

The following two pictures are taken on June 6th 1944 D-Day. This is the day that Allied

troops landed on the European continent to start an offensive and take back the entire

continent.

www.archives.gov/.../ winter/images/d-day.jpg

history.grand-forks.k12.nd.us/.../ d-day%203.jpg

The final two items are the signature page from the unconditional surrender of Japan

aboard the USS Missouri and a picture of the signing of these documents aboard the USS

Missouri.

Lesson Plan Outline

Unit: America and World War II Lesson Title: America’s Entry into World War II. Grade Level: 11th Essential Question related to Vital Theme: What was America’s involvement in World War II. Lesson Time: 2-3 class periods Curriculum Standards

• Identify the causes of WWII. State Curriculum Era 8 standard 5.2 and Performance indicator level 1

• Define the terms Totalitarianism, fascism, Communism and nationalism. Era 8 • Identify the events that led up to the US entering WWII. Era 8 Level 2 • Identify axis & allied alliances on a map. Era 8 Level 2

Technology used and how: CD player to listen to FDR war message Materials: CD of FDR war message, Outline Map of Europe, Colored Pencils, Transcript of FDR war message, Dr. Seuss War time political cartoons. Activity description(s) and overview of instructional strategies:

• Listen to FDR war message CD in class with students reading the transcript. • Have students answer questions attached to transcript. • Give the students Dr. Seuss political cartoons with higher order thinking skills

based questions. Supporting Assignments/Homework: Blank outline map of Europe, take home label and color axis countries one color, allied countries one color and neutral colors another color. Assessment: True/False quiz for general understanding, and a unit exam over the entire chapter.

America Enters World War II

Lesson Plan

Anticipatory Set: Review of causes of European and Japanese conflicts up until 1940.

• The Failure of this treaty helped set the scene for another world war. Benito Mussolini was a dictator. Was he a communist or a fascist?

• What was a Fascist? Stressed Nationalism and placed interests of state above those of individuals.

• Adolph Hitler was a communist or a Nazi. Hitler was also a fascist. • Joseph Stalin was a Communist, Nazi, or a Fascist. • World Wide Depression and strict trade barriers helped lead to war. • England and France’s policy of appeasement helped let the little Dictator gain

more and more control of Europe until he was unstoppable. • America had taken a policy of __________ toward the conflict in Europe. • Japans imperialistic and militaristic expansionary ideas lead to conflict in the

Pacific. Objectives:

• Identify the causes of WWII. State Curriculum Era 8 standard 5.2 and Performance indicator level 1

• Define the terms Totalitarianism, fascism, Communism and nationalism. Era 8 Performance indicator level 1

• Identify the events that led up to the US entering WWII. Era 8 Level 2 • Identify axis & allied alliances on a map. Era 8 Level 2

Questions: Built into lecture Instruction:

I. America moves from neutrality. A. September 1939 congress passed a Cash and Carry provision 1. Allowed warring nations to buy US arms

a. Must Pay Cash b. Must transport in their ships

B. Congress passed Neutrality act of 1939 and Cash and Carry went into effect C. AXIS THREAT 1.Summer 1940 France Fell

2. England under Siege in Battle of London 3. Germany, Italy, Japan, Signed Tripartite Pact a. Aimed at Keeping United States out of War b. If United States declared War on any one of the Axis Powers c. The other two would come to AID

d. United States would Face a two front war c. Atlantic Front & Pacific Front d. FDR provided England all aid short of war by June 1940 sent e. After the Pact was signed, he traded 50 old destroyers for leases on British naval bases in Caribbean and Newfoundland.

4. FDR asked congress to increase spending for national defense. 5. Congress passed first peacetime Draft ever.

a. Drafted 1million men to serve one year. 6. Roosevelt runs for and is elected to a third term in 1940. 7. FDR Told Americans in a fireside chat.

a. “No man can tame a tiger into a kitten by stroking it” b. This quote was talking America’s attitude toward Hitler c. FDR stated if Britian falls “America will be living at the point of a gun.”

8. Lend-Lease Plan a. America would “lend or lease arms to any country whose defense was vital to the United States.” b. Isolationist did not like it but in March 1941 congress passed the lend lease act.

9. Stalin and Communist Russia received aid under lend lease plan a. Several in America did not like giving aid to communist b.FDR agreed with Churchill’s statement “if Hitler invaded Hell then the British would be prepared to work with the devil himself.”

10. German Wolf Packs a. Hitler to keep lend lease aid from reaching England and Russia deployed 100s of UBOATS b. At night groups of 40 U boats would patrol shipping lanes and would use radios to summon other boats to their area when they found the enemy. c. In one month u boats sank more than 350,000 tons of shipments d. FDR allowed US warships to fire on UBOATS in self-defense.

II. FDR Plans for War

A. Atlantic Charter 1. A joint declaration of war aims between US and England

a. Collective Security b. Disarmament c. Self Determination d. Economic Cooperation f. Freedom of the Seas

2. This was basis of new document called “A declaration of the United Nations”

a. United Nations used to express common purpose of ALLIES b. Was signed by 26 nations 3. Shoot on sight policy

a. Destroyer US Greer was fired on by U-boat b. American Merchant Ship Pink Star sunk c. US Destroyer Kearny Fired on and 11 lives lost d. US Destroyer Reuben James Sank 100 lives lost e. FDR ordered Navy to fire at first sight of U Boat

III. Japan Attacks Pearl

A. German Victories create opportunities for Japanese expansionist B. Hideki Tojo Chief of staff of Japan’s Kwantung Army

1. Launched invasion into China C. Only US and its Pacific islands lay in japans way D. July 1941 took over Indochina (Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos)

1. US protested by cutting trade to Japan D. Tojo becomes prime minister met with emperor Hirohito and promised they would try to work it out with America E. US had broke Japan’s secret code

1. Knew that a strike was coming just did not know where 2. Roosevelt sent out a war warning to military commanders

a. Guam b. Hawaii c. Philippines

3. Peace talks went on for a month 4. December 6th 1941 FDR gets message

a. Japan’s peace envoy was to reject all peace proposals F. The attack on Pearl

1. Read from timeline major events that happened at Pearl

IV. American Reaction to Pearl Harbor attack 1.FDR concerned over having to fight a two front war

2.“We will have to build up the navy and air force and that will mean that we will have to take a good many defeats before we can have a victory”

a. What did FDR mean by this? 3. December 8th 1941 FDR addresses joint session of congress

a. What recent president did something like this? 4. Strong Isolationist now was even in support of the all out American war effort.

Guided Practice: Listen to and read along FDR’s Speech to congress and answer questions about it. Independent Practice:

Quiz America Enters World War II

True/False _____ 1. One of the ways FDR planned for war was to sign the Atlantic Charter with Winston Churchhill. _____ 2. Adolf Hitler was a member of the communist party. _____ 3. The Tripartite Pact was signed by the US, England, and Russia in 1940 to bring America into the war. _____ 4. Congress passed the lend lease act in 1941 that said America will lend or lease arms to any country whose defense was vital to the United States. _____ 5. December 7, 1941 Japan launched a surprise attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor Hawaii. _____ 6. FDR was not concerned with fighting a two front war. _____ 7. German wolf packs did not have any affect on shipping during World War II. _____ 8. Stalin and communist Russia received aid from the lend lease act. _____ 9. Congress in 1939 passed a cash and carry provision which allowed warring nations to buy American arms, they must pay cash and transport the goods in their own ships. _____ 10. Congress would not pass a peace time draft for FDR. Closure: BEEN= We have been to the top of the world with the roaring 20s, we saw the introduction of installment plans, a new type of music, an increase in crime with the prohibition of alcohol, we saw a renaissance in Harlem and we saw women gain their political and personal freedom in the flappers. We also saw this all come crashing to an end that fateful October day in 1929 with the collapse of the economic foundations of America. We saw a delusional president in Hoover who ignored the problems. We saw a NEW DEAL rise out of the ashes and start turning the tide on the depression with the election of FDR in 1932. We watched as events led Europe spiraling toward and ending

up in another GREAT WAR. We also watched as America took an isolationist stance and ignored warning signs to our own involvement into this GREAT WAR. ARE= Today we discussed the final straw that brings America head long into a war with the axis powers. We saw our neutrality slip away with the cash and carry policy and then the lend lease plans. We saw our ships come under German attack in the Atlantic and finally we watched our pacific fleet be blown to pieces while anchored in Pearl Harbor by the Japanese. GOING= Tomorrow we will see how America mobilizes for another World War. We will watch the development of ROSIE the RIVOTER as women take their place in jobs that were once primarily held by men who are now training for war. We will travel into Northern Africa and hear names such as George Patton, Erwin Rommel, and Bernard Montgomery.

Lesson Plan America and World War II

Anticipatory Set: Review lecture from day before. Objectives:

• Identify the causes of WWII. State Curriculum Era 8 standard 5.2 and • Define the terms Totalitarianism, fascism, Communism and nationalism. Era 8

Performance indicator level 1 • Identify the events that led up to the US entering WWII. Era 8 Level 2 • Identify axis & allied alliances on a map. Era 8 Level 2

Questions: On handouts Instruction: Give students FDR War Message Handout and questions play the message and let students read along. After students have heard and read the message let place them in their cooperative learning groups to answer the questions. Guided Practice: . Give the students two Dr.Seuss Political cartoons. He Never Knew What Hit Him, and End of the Nap are the two that corresponds with this lesson. Give the students time in their cooperative learning groups to look at the cartoons and answer the questions attached to each cartoon. If time remains have the students to go back into their lecture notes from the day before and draw their own political cartoons. Independent Practice: Give the students blank outline maps of Europe let them take them home and place the names of the countries on the map. Once the student has named the countries they should use colored pencils and color the countries that were part in the Axis powers and the countries that were allied. The student should also color the countries that were neutral during the war a separate color. Closure: Answer any questions the students have and remind them of their homework assignment.

FDR War Message

No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory. I believe I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost but Will make very certain that this form of treachery shall never endanger us again.

Our people, our territory and our interests are in grave danger.

With confidence in our armed forces - with the unbounding determination of our people-we will gain the inevitable triumph-so help us God.

I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December 7, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire.

1. What did FDR mean by saying “at the solicitation of Japan, was still in conversation with its government and its Emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific." 2. Does FDR say out his case for the attack-being-well planned and deliberate in the 4th paragraph? WHY? 3. What does FDR mean when he says that "our territory and our interests are in grave danger." 4. What was the reason behind this speech by FDR? 5. In your opinion does he make a good case for war?